Smart Decision-Making in Mobile Healthcare Information Systems: An Ontology-Based Approach to Emergency Management

Abstract

Saving patients’ lives in peril is a crucial task; therefore, it is the primary concern of physicians and caregivers. While heading to an adequate medical institution that must be determined with precision, late response, information overload, and poor decisions may lead to serious, even catastrophic, health consequences. It is even worse if it is known that some areas do not have good medical coverage such as in rural regions. A good solution is to enhance the functionalities of mobile physicians, an ordinary physician in move with any adequate vehicle. They have the role of visiting the patient when requested, providing initial aid, making an initial diagnosis, and caring for a patient while moving to a medical institution when involved. To facilitate efficient on-road decision-making for mobile physicians, this study suggests a medical decision support system that adopts the ontology-driven approach for efficient emergency management. It permits ascertaining and ranking the appropriate medical institutions as quickly as possible, including healthcare resources institutions per the patient's condition determined initially, thanks to the first diagnosis, and continuously evaluated in real-time.